


Starling, all these years have gone to waste

by duesternis



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fooling Around, M/M, Mutual Pining, Out of order storytelling, blood mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-11 10:27:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15970448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duesternis/pseuds/duesternis
Summary: "It wasn‘t all bad.“Nori‘s laugh was bitter and Bofur turned around to look at him. The wind played with the braids streaking over Nori‘s shoulders."What was good? What is good?“





	Starling, all these years have gone to waste

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this some time ago, but felt the need to post it finally.
> 
> Tell me what you think of it.

Bofur drew a ragged breath, dust rattling in his lungs.  
The hand stroking his hair stilled momentarily and then warm fingers scratched against his scalp again.  
He closed his eyes and Nori pressed a kiss to his brow.  
"Again?“  
"It‘ll always bother me, starling. The mines never leave a miner.“  
Nori made an ugly sound high in his throat and kissed his brow again. White hair trailed over Bofur‘s cheeks and he smelled the soap in it.  
"I‘ll be there longer.“

___

Bofur cut the corner and almost choked on the tune he had been whistling.  
A dwarrow barraged into him and all he saw for a moment was copper hair and sleet eyes.  
Vaguely familiar.  
Then the ceiling, dusty grey and smooth.  
An elbow dug into his middle and the last bit of breath left Bofur in a wheeze.

The dwarrow laughed and jumped to their feet, nimble, despite the tumble.  
"Sorry about that, mate, but I gotta dash! Ta!“  
Bofur barely caught sight of a grey coat whipping around the corner, before heavy boots dragged sparks over the polished floor.

"Are you out of your mind? Get out of the way, Miner!“  
Bofur pushed his hat out of his eyes and scrambled to his feet.  
Three of the city guard, faces red under their beards and hands clasped tightly around their staffs.  
"Terribly sorry, my mistake, won‘t happen again, lost my footing there for a moment, so silly of me, really!“ He laughed and bowed with a little flourish. "Don‘t let me keep you, Masters, but let me thank you for the hard work you do!“  
The guards pushed past him in the narrow hall and their boots beat against the floor again.  
Curious he peered around the corner, back to where he‘d come from, but there was neither sight of a grey coat nor of the running guards.  
He huffed a laugh and turned around on the heel of his scuffed boots.  
No time to dally, really, there was still dinner to be made.

___

Rain pelted them, dripped from their beards and braids and made the flaps of Bofur‘s hat droop just as miserably as Nori‘s points.  
They were huddled together under equally wet trees, the smell of sap and drenched earth making them sneeze.  
Dwalin had Bilbo and Ori gathered under his cloak, like a hen protecting her chicks from the onslaught, while Dori, Oin and Balin had turned their backs to the wind sapping all warmth from them, talking amongst themselves in hushed voices.  
But even if they had shouted, Bofur wouldn‘t have heard them.

Not when Nori breathed into his ear and Fili and Kili spoke in words that made sense only to them, wrapped up in each other‘s cloaks like two lines of ore meeting.  
Bifur and Bombur had taken refuge under another tree, along with Gloin and Gandalf.  
Thorin stood under a trailing branch, eyes turned into the sheet of rain dropped over the forest.  
He looked kingly, alright

Nori shifted against Bofur‘s side and cursed vividly, his wet hair stuck to Bofur‘s cheek and he smelled the road in it.  
The road, the dust and the wet forest. And something sweet, like soap.  
"Could be worse, really.“  
"How so?“ More growl than words.  
Bofur laughed.  
"Could be orcs in the trees.“  
Nori snickered against Bofur‘s ear and pulled his coat tighter around his shoulders.  
"Let‘s hope orcs hate travelling in rain as much as dwarves do.“  
"Aye, well. They aren‘t exactly sensible folks, but the weather‘s more than enough to deter a dragon from flying out, so I hope orcs are just about as sensible as dragons.“  
Again a breath of laughter and Bofur grinned.  
It felt good against his clammy skin: warm and alive.  
"I don‘t think dragons have a single sensible bone in their bodies.“  
"Shame, what with how big they are. Would make you believe there should at least be a tiny one. In a toe.“  
The snickers became a snort and then Nori sneezed into Bofur‘s scarf.

"Oh! Bless you, Master Nori!“  
Another snicker.  
"Keep the Master, Bofur, I‘ve gotten my fluids all over you. We‘re friends.“  
This time it was Bofur‘s turn to laugh and he prayed that the dim light masked the flush in his cheeks well enough.  
Not once had a dwarf like Nori been inclined to call him anything even resembling the notion of friend.  
It made him sing like metal tapped with a pickaxe.

___

Born to a family of miners in the belly of the Blue Mountains, Bofur had never known another lullaby but the songs the miners sang.  
He played at the mouth of tunnels that stretched endlessly into the mountain, pickaxes and shovels as toys, his brother as a companion.  
He ventured into the tunnels as a pebble, barely old enough to go out alone.

Bofur never got lost in the tunnels.

The stone, the ores, the gems tucked away in folds of grey, they all talked to him. Whispered and sang and took his hand to lead him back home.  
That vein of grainy iron, mediocre in quality, would take him home fastest.  
But the barely-there shimmer of quartz in the ceiling would lead him past a small lake where the water was fresh and clear enough to see the bottom.

By the time he was of age and took up his own pickaxe, to do what his family had done for generations, Bofur knew the mines of Ered Luin better than many a dwarf that had worked them for longer than Bofur was alive.  
This meant that Bofur knew his way around the mountain.  
Knew shortcuts, ways where there should be none and nooks and crannies for a quick rest between double shifts that left his lungs aching and his hands red and sore.  
He grew accostumed to the dull ache of dust in his lungs and his hands became hard and rough, palms as tough as leather and fingers blunt and strong.  
His arms hefted tankards of ale as good as his pickaxe and there was hardly a party that didn‘t have him on the tables, leading one song after the next.

Knowing his way around the mountain also meant that Bofur saw things.  
Noticed things.  
Noticed a dwarf with copper hair and sleet grey eyes, that had a quick tongue and quicker fingers.  
And two pieces of gold in his hair.  
Gold that made Bofur‘s mouth water, unused as he was to the sight.

His mother had a pendant, the size of a fingernail, a courting gift from her husband, and that was all the gold they had at home.  
And this young dwarf wore it in the long braids over his shoulders, keeping them from unraveling with two round beads that sang to Bofur.  
He day-dreamed of talking to him and night-dreamed of so much more.  
But the mines swallowed him for days on end and he lost track of the copper waterfall.  
Only in his dreams did the hair wash over him, burying him, cradling him, like only the mountain could when he was awake.

___

In the Woodland Realm Bofur curled up on the wet earth of their cell and listened to the dust rattle in his lungs.  
He was tired, run thin over a quest that was bigger than he ever could have dreamt when he had signed his name under the contract.  
He wasn‘t built for these things.  
He was neither kin nor friend to lords and princes.  
He was a humble miner, happy with almost any mountain as long as it gave a decent haul at the end of the day.  
His eyes slipped closed and he must have fallen asleep to drab thoughts and the music of dust.

Because when Bofur opened his eyes again, it was dark.

At the bend of the hallway a torch flickered, lending enough light that he could see his cold hands pressed against the bars of the cell.  
There was a warm body pressed against his back. But no breath stirred his hair or scarf.  
Back to back then.  
Not unusual with almost any of the company‘s members to seek warmth like this when they slept.  
Bofur looked over his shoulder to check who had rolled up to him and drowned in a copper mane.  
Blood and dust and and and.  
He closed his eyes again and rolled on his back, face buried in Nori‘s hair.

Bofur woke with two single hairs of it tied around the end of one of his braids.

 

___

"Oh, hey Miner!“  
Bofur turned in the market and was greeted by pearly teeth, set in crimson. The dwarrow licked blood from their split lips and dabbed some out of their beard.  
"I owe you a thanks.“  
A quick once over and he recognised the grey eyes and coat and the copper braid that had snaked over one shoulder.  
The golden beads in it.  
His breath stuttered in his lungs and Bofur coughed meekly.  
He knew that copper from his dreams.  
Knew it from yesterday and connected the dots.   
The line between them pulled so tight that Bofur feared he might crack through the middle.

So he grinned easily and gave the braid-free shoulder a hearty slap.  
"What for? For not making you pay for bowling me right over?“   
The grin was returned with interest and Bofur found he liked the sly spark it lit in the sleet eyes drilling into him.  
"For keeping the guards occupied long enough that I could slip away.“  
Bofur snorted through his nose.  
"Buy me a drink and we‘re even.“  
"I‘ll buy you two and the next time I run into you, just do it like last time, okay?“  
A half-shouldered shrug.  
There was probably no harm to it.  
"Sure, why not?“

___

They stood shoulder to shoulder atop thebattlements. The road leading into the mountain under them.  
Bofur‘s pipe had lost its ember a good half hour ago.  
He hadn‘t moved to light it again.  
Nori looked down at the rubble that lay where the gate had once stood and Bofur felt him shift.  
"What is it?“  
He interpreted the next move as a shrug and finally reached for his pipe. Took it out of his mouth and tapped the ash and leftover leaf into the wind.

Nori sighed and leaned forward on the banister, arms heavy on the stone.  
"If only I knew, Bofur.“  
Bofur hummed, whistled a simple tune and leaned forward aswell, arm pressed to Nori‘s.  
"Doesn‘t feel right, does it? Like a dream.“

Wistfully his eyes dragged over Nori‘s copper hair, fragments of dreams that had featured that special colour prominently clinging to his mind.  
Nori snorted, nodded and turned around, back to the open plane around the Lonely Mountain, smouldering and rent as it was, by the dragon's ire.  
"Sometimes I think, at night, when the shadows creep up on me, that we never should have set out on this quest. See what good it has brought in the end.“  
Bofur shrugged and turned his nose into the wind. It still tasted of ash.

"It wasn‘t all bad.“

Nori‘s laugh was bitter and Bofur turned around to look at him. The wind played with the loose hair streaking over Nori‘s shoulders.  
"What was good? What is good?“  
He had seen Nori angry and scared and all sorts of things in between on their quest to the mountain.  
But Bofur had never seen him bitter.  
It didn‘t suit him.

The wind swallowed the sounds of his steps. Nori didn‘t retreat backwards, stood his ground with clenched fists and stormy brows.  
Bofur felt his heart flutter in his chest.  
They stood nose to nose now.  
"I got to meet you properly, Nori, and that‘s the best thing that‘s ever happened to me. And no matter what you say or do, it won‘t change that.“  
He carefully tipped their foreheads together, breath mingling between them.

"I‘d do it all again, if only for that.“

Nori‘s breath caught audibly in his throat. His eyes flitted over Bofur‘s face and his boots shuffled on the floor.  
Bofur stayed still, as if he had been carved from the very stone they stood on.  
Erebor spoke to him, as any other mountain had.  
It cradled him, gave him whispered secrets in the way air licked over stone and the way water rushed through it.

But it all paled next to the pull of Nori‘s every movement.  
The pull of the lodestone resting under their tunics.  
"I‘d have it all happen again just like that, only to stand next to you during it all. You make me whole, Nori.“  
Air rushed into the warm spot where Nori had been and Bofur was left looking after the trailing ends of his grey cloak.

He sagged against the wall and decided that it was just as nice a spot as any other to break into tears.

___

"Remember when I let you braid my hair for the first time?“  
Bofur chuckled and blew stone dust from the figurine he had chiselled out of the granite.  
"How could I forget, starling? My hands shook so much I had to re-do the braid twice.“  
Nori played with a gold coin and tilted his chair on the back legs.  
"Drove me half mad was what you did.“

Bofur‘s laughter got him a coin to the ear, but it only made him laugh more.  
"Oh, dear, you‘ve always been half mad! No sane dwarf would have done as we did, not if they had a shred of honour left in their chest.“  
"Good for us, that we wouldn‘t touch honour with a ten foot pole.“  
Nori stood and pressed a kiss to Bofur‘s brow before picking up his cloak and throwing it around his shoulders.

"I‘m going out, don‘t wait up for me.“  
"You know I will.“  
"Only because you can‘t sleep without me there.“  
"Not that I can‘t, more that I don‘t have to.“  
Bofur cherished Nori‘s flushed face just as much as the curse thrown at him through the closing door.

___

The heavy fist banged the table again and Bofur winced.  
The stone hummed with the force and he was pretty sure that the guard‘s fist would hurt by nightfall the latest.  
"Stop wasting my time! I know you‘ve seen him!“

Bofur chuckled and smoothed his moustache with two fingers.  
"So it‘s a crime now to see a dwarrow in a mountain full with them?“  
The braids on the chin of the guard quivered and Bofur swallowed easily, masking his nervousness perfectly behind a practised shrug.  
"And I don’t even know who it is I supposedly saw. I see hundreds of dwarrows every day, Master Guard, so please be easy on me.“

A vein above the bushy brows made itself known with rhythmic pulsing and Bofur had an inkling that he was stretching himself a bit too thin.  
"I’d love to help you.“ Simple, unassuming smile that spoke of nothing but obediance.  
The guard breathed deeply and sat back down, hands folded atop the stone of the table.

"I speak of Nori, the Goldsmith.“  
Bofur blinked through the wash of copper hair and brilliant laugh clouding his mind.

He had seen Nori early this morning, the hallways still dim and empty, cooler than during the day with only half the forges burning high.  
He had seen the black eye and the split lip - again a split lip, always again - and the bright eyes.  
He had stepped closer, hands at the ready, unsure for what and Nori had grabbed the flaps of his hat, pulling it over Bofur’s eyebrows.  
He had whispered "Stall for me, will you? They will be here in a moment.“  
Bofur had grabbed Nori’s wrists, strong and warm and adorned with slim golden bands.  
He hadn’t had those last time.  
"What happened?“  
"You don’t need to know, don’t worry. Just keep them for a bit.“  
"How?“  
Nori had grinned and given Bofur’s hat a last tug that pulled it over his eyes proper. "You’ll think of something.“  
By the time Bofur had pushed his hat up from his eyes Nori had already vanished and the clamour of guards down the way had risen.

Unthinking Bofur had run up to the next nook and made it so that the first guard toppled when they ran into each other.  
Clumsy as he was, two others fell down when they tried to get around the knot of dwarves.  
Too clumsy, too obvious.  
They’d taken him in.  
"Nori the Goldsmith? I don’t know that name.“  
More a white lie than anything else. Who could have guessed that Nori was a Goldsmith? Who could have guessed that Bofur knew his name at all?  
The guard huffed a deep sigh.

"Red hair, three braids in his beard and a grey coat. His belt has a peculiar buckle.“  
"That could be every second dwarrow in this mountain!“  
Bofur tipped his chair back on the legs and came forward again with a crash.  
"Now, listen. I don’t know that fella, I’m sure I haven’t seen a dwarf with three braids in a red beard and I really need to go to work, Master, or else I’ll be out of work all thanks to you.“  
The guard had the decency to look mildly concerned.  
"You can go, but be sure that we’ll keep a close eye on who you dally with in the next time.“

Bofur stood, bowed and couldn’t resist a last grin at the guard.  
„I’ll be on my best behaviour, Master Guard. A good haul to you!“  
He was out the door and half way into the mines before he realized that he technically was an accomplice now and at least partly guilty for whatever crime Nori had commited.

It didn’t dim his mood one bit.

___

Bofur pressed his open mouth against the inside of Nori’s wrist and let his teeth graze the jumping pulse.  
Nori gasped and pressed his body closer into the warmth of Bofur’s heaving chest.  
Their legs tangled from hip to ankle and Nori’s braids were beyond saving at this point.  
Bofur shivered, as Nori cupped the back of his head in his warm palm.  
The searing kiss dragged a moan from his belly and Nori swallowed it hungrily.

"Nori.“  
Bofur rubbed his knee against Nori’s side and tilted his head into Nori’s hand, arching his throat.  
"Yeah?“  
Nori breathed wetly against the hollow of Bofur’s throat and buried both his hands deep in the hair hanging down over Bofur’s shoulders.

"I want-“ Blunt nails gently scratched Bofur’s scalp and he made a wet, broken noise, hands twitching over Nori’s back. "Skin.“  
The laugh against his throat startled Bofur and Nori caught his eyes with a grin. "What the fuck, Bofur?“  
"I didn’t make sense right now, did I?“

"Not in the least, you brick.“ Nori rested his weight on an elbow and cradled his chin on his knuckles.  
Bofur stroked the neat braid of his brow and pressed a kiss between his eyes.  
Shrugged.  
"Happens to the best of us from time to time. What didn’t you get what I said? Glad to be of service.“  
He stretched languidly under Nori and Nori hummed his appreciation, one hand stroking Bofur’s side distractedly.

"You said skin. Just that, and frankly that put me out of the mood a bit.“ Nori grinned easily and blew a strand of copper hair away from his nose.  
"We had a mood?“  
They both laughed, noses rubbing against each other.  
"We had, idiot, and you ruined it with that weird comment.“  
Bofur chuckled and kissed Nori’s beard.

"I want to touch your skin.“  
"Ah! That makes more sense. Full sentences aren’t that hard after all, or are they?“  
"Elitist.“  
Bofur grinned and Nori sat up, straddling Bofur’s hips as he worked the buckles and hooks of his clothes open.  
"And you like it.“  
"Guilty as charged.“

Nori rolled his eyes and Bofur happily assisted him in pulling the heavy tunics over his ruined hairstyle.  
"You look properly debauched already did you know?“  
"And you look dumb.“  
"As always, then.“  
With a snort Nori shrugged out of his undershirt and let it bunch at the waistband of his trousers.  
"You too.“

Bofur frowned and leaned up on his elbows. "Me too what?“  
"Undress, brickhead.“  
"Ah! Full sentences, a true blessing of our kind.“

Before Nori could snark at him Bofur quickly shed his layers, knocking his hat off his head in the process and feeling terribly bare for it.  
But Nori picked it up and put it on his own head before Bofur had freed his hands from his sleeves.  
It made Bofur’s heart stutter in his chest and he looked at the warm, soft hair trailing over Nori’s chest.  
Gold glinted between it.  
Bofur’s hands moved without permission, fingers reaching for the warm glow, for the liquid shine of it.

"Like what you see?“  
He felt gut-punched. A golden hoop, with a ruby dangling from it, in Nori’s bellybutton. Golden barbells in the nipples, tiny diamonds set into the balls.  
Polished, gleaming, pure gold.  
Bofur nodded and rubbed his thumb over the flesh, feeling the sharp contrast of textures like a strike of lightning.  
Even after all the gold he had seen now, Nori’s bejewelled body sang to him more than the whole treasury did.

"It’s gorgeous.“  
Nori shifted under Bofur’s hands and gently stroked the curly hair on Bofur’s chest, knocking against the lodestone pendant.  
"Thank you.“  
Bofur leaned up and closed his mouth around one of the barbells, metal warm and smooth on his tongue.  
The buttons on their pants clacked together and Nori’s hands balled into fists in Bofur’s chest hair.  
He grunted around the piercing in his mouth and licked over it, gasping for breath as Nori rolled his hips.

"Fuck, Bofur, you’re a handful.“  
"Haven’t even touched it yet, Nori, so don’t go around mocking me already.“  
"I’m not mocking you.“  
"It’s more than a handful.“  
Nori cackled and rolled his hips again, mouth open in a lazy grin that made Bofur buck his hips into the movement.  
Gold glinted between Nori’s teeth and Bofur jerked up, hands flying to the braids of Nori’s beard.  
"Show me.“

With a laugh Nori opened his mouth wide, hands curling around Bofur’s shoulders. His tongue rested flat against his lip and Bofur swallowed.  
Gold, even there. Wet and warm and gorgeous.  
Bofur licked it, tasting Nori and the metal.  
And Nori flicked his tongue against the roof of Bofur’s mouth, piercing clacking against Bofur’s teeth, and they both groaned.  
"Get your boots off, Nori, please. And the socks. No socks in bed.“  
Nori laughed and shimmied off Bofur, pressing a kiss to the curve of his ribs.  
A moment later their boots hit the floor, socks dropping a breath later.

They came back together, breath swelling between them, hands softly stroking over heated skin.  
"Your hands are rough.“  
"I’m a miner. Do you mind it? I can put gloves on.“  
"No socks, but gloves would be okay?“ Nori laughed and gently rested his forehead against Bofur’s. "You’re weird.“  
"Sorry.“  
"I don’t mind, Bofur. I like it.“  
Their lips touched on every other word and Bofur smiled, cheeks warmer than just a moment ago.  
"Thanks.“

They scooted closer together, thighs draped over each other and hands on shoulders.  
"This feels good.“  
Nori hummed and smiled faintly, lips curving against Bofur’s.  
"It does.“

 

___

"Truly you knew.“  
Bofur gaped, eyes wet with tears, and hands sticky with blood.  
"No, no, I didn’t! How does one know anything with you, you blasted idiot!“  
He pressed harder on the wound in Nori’s thigh and cursed when his hands slipped in the blood.

"I was sure you knew and and-“  
A sharp gasp and Bofur dropped his forehead to Nori’s.  
"Hush, be still, it’s okay. They’ll be here soon, rest now, it’s fine. I’m here, I’m here, Nori.“  
Nori glared as fiercely as he did unhurt and grabbed Bofur’s ears.  
"You are an idiot and I’m even worse. Now shut up, my leg is hurt, not anything worse. So let me talk, for all that shines.“

Bofur pressed his thumbs over the deep cut and felt the pulse of blood against his skin. He nodded, scared that Nori would die out of spite, if he didn’t let him talk now.  
"Thank Mahal that your ears work. Come a bit closer, Bofur.“  
Nori had the audacity to grin, while he bled out under Bofur’s hands, fingers curling soft around Bofur’s ears.  
"That’s better. Now. I’ve got a question to ask you and you have to give me an answer or I’ll make you pay for it.“

Bofur nodded jerkily, fat tears dripping down his nose and on Nori’s dirty face.  
"Good.“ Nori shifted and rubbed his forehead more firmly against Bofur’s, smearing sweat, blood and grime on their skin. 

"Let me court you?“

"Asshole.“ Bofur raised his head and slammed his forehead against Nori’s. Grey eyes rolled back into Nori’s head and he slumped against the muddy ground.  
Bofur huffed and pulled his nose up, wiping snot and tears on his shoulder. "Stupid asshole.“  
A bit to the east a horn sounded and Bofur raised his head. Cleared his throat and shouted as loud as he could.  
"Here! Over here! We need a healer!“

He felt dazed when steady, clean hands pulled Nori out from under his dirty, bloodied ones and even more so when he was gently lead away, losing sight of Nori’s copper hair in the bustle.  
He felt disgusting when he washed Nori’s blood down a drain and shook his head when he was asked if he was hurt.  
He would have been, if Nori hadn’t been there. Would have been dead, if Nori hadn’t been there.  
And now he had no idea where Nori was.

He wandered the hallways, heard the mountain whisper around him and followed the pull behind his sternum to a set of firmly closed double doors.  
More than a dozen dwarrows milled around in front of them. Worried stares wore away at the stone and many a braid was pulled in distress.  
Bofur sat down in a sharp corner, stone pressed against his shoulders.  
If Nori had survived being taken out from under his hands then he was behind those doors.  
And Bofur would sit here and wait for him, if it was the last thing he did.

 

\---

Bofur turned the heavy paper around in his hands and looked at the gorgeous runes trailing around each other, twisting before his eyes and making it impossible for him to read it in a timely fashion.  
Mahal, he could hardly have read it if it were less beautiful.

Balin Fundinson smiled fatherly at him, eyes sparkling under bushy brows.  
"What do you say, laddie? Signing it?“  
Bofur laughed and grabbed the quill with dirty fingers, dripping ink on the bottom before signing his name in crude, angular runes that had not a shred of the elegance the rest of the contract held.  
He touched the signature of Thorin Oakenshield and chuckled.  
A living legend and he would go on a quest with him.  
"The beer’s free, right?“

Someone laughed in the one shadowy corner of the room and Balin cleared his throat.  
"I thought I had asked you to step outside after your brother had signed, Nori.“  
"You did.“  
A very familiar face came out of the corner and Bofur’s throat dried out.  
He was going to die on this quest.  
"You signed, miner?“  
"Just now, goldsmith.“  
Nori laughed and patted Bofur’s shoulder, flicked one of the ear flaps of Bofur’s hat and opened the door.

"I’ll hold them up for you, you know.“  
Nori looked at Bofur over his shoulder and for a moment there was no hint of a smile in his eyes.  
A question instead.  
Bofur grinned, one shoulder lifted to his braid. He nodded.

"Looking forward to it. Name’s Nori.“  
"Bofur, at your service.“  
They bowed to each other and the door closed behind Nori’s grey coat.  
Balin rolled the contract up and smiled at Bofur.  
"You’re acquainted?“  
"Wouldn’t say so much, but we came across each other a few times.“  
"Don’t let my brother know, he has quite a few thoughts about Nori and his acquaintances.“

Bofur laughed, rocked up on his toes and pulled his pipe from his pocket, tapping it against his lips.  
"That won’t trouble me, I’m an easy going fellow.“  
"We’ll need that, laddie, we really will.“  
With easy shoulders and a soft weight in his heart Bofur left the room and found copper hair at the bend of the hallway.  
They nodded at each other and went their ways.

 

\---

Two hairs of copper in his left braid and two lodestones in his pocket, stuck together.  
He borrowed a file from Bifur and carefully tickled shapes out of the stone during his watches.  
An axe and a shield, small, not even big enough to cover his palm fully.

Nori grinned sharply when Bofur presented them to him.  
"Pick one.“  
His grin faltered, dropped into something softer, something less edged.   
"You shouldn’t.“  
"Pick one.“  
"Will you keep the other one?“  
"Aye.“  
Nori picked the shield and carefully fed a strip of leather through the hole at the top.   
"Tie the knot for me.“  
Bofur’s hands shook as he tied the leather firmly in Nori’s neck. The skin was warm under his fingertips and Nori’s hair smelled sweet.  
With a gesture Nori asked for the axe and Bofur gave it to him with shaking fingers. Another strip of leather around the head of the axe and Nori tied it in Bofur’s neck.

"Wear it under your tunic or you’ll get stuck somewhere.“  
Bofur nodded, eyes wet and mouth curled into a smile. "You too, Nori, you too.“  
Nori tugged on the ear flaps of Bofur’s hat and smiled easily.   
"Go to sleep, it’s my watch now.“  
"Mind if I curl up next to you?“  
"Mind if I rest my feet on your back?“  
They shared a smothered laugh and settled close to each other, night a bit warmer for it and fate a bit less scary.

 

___

"Are you Bofur, here for Nori?“  
Bofur scrambled to his feet, eyes red-rimmed from tears and too little sleep, legs weak for more reasons than he could count.  
He nodded and the healer smiled at him with kind eyes.  
"He’s up and asking for you, follow me.“  
The dwarrowdam stepped lightly through the double doors, kept ajar to let healers move in and out, dwarrows in their wake.  
"Please be as quiet as you can in here, everyone needs as much rest as they can get.“

Bofur nodded, eyes searching the room for a hint of fiery copper and sleet grey.  
Sunlight streaked the room from windows high up in the walls, almost no dust dancing in the beams.  
They kissed Nori’s hair at the back of the room.  
Bofur overtook the healer and ignored her reprimand, coming to a shaky stop at the foot of Nori’s bed.  
His hair was down, twisted into a simple braid in his neck.  
He smiled at Bofur, face pale but not gaunt and lips curled into a smirk that Bofur had missed fiercely.

"There you are. Thought you’d run away, it took you so long.“  
Bofur laughed wetly and sat down on the stool by Nori’s bedside. "I was right outside the doors the whole time, Nori. Wouldn’t run away for all the gold in the world if it meant leaving you behind.“  
"Keep your sweet talking to yourself.“  
Nori smiled, pleased, and grabbed Bofur’s hand. Turned it over and traced the scars on his palm. Touched the callouses and knuckles, followed the crooked shapes of Bofur’s fingers.

"I did ask you out there, didn’t I?“  
"You did, aye. And it was the dumbest question I ever heard.“  
Nori frowned and smacked his lips. "Why?“  
Bofur chuckled and knocked his forehead against Nori’s.  
"Because I’ve been courting you for years now, starling, and you did it right back at me.“  
Nori stilled his fingers on Bofur’s hand and for a moment no breath touched Bofur’s lips.  
Then Nori leaned back into his pillow and folded his hands over his belly.

Bofur cleared his throat and shifted uneasily on the stool.  
When he opened his mouth Nori hushed him with a single stern look.  
He looked just like Dori for a moment and Bofur winced, settling more quietly on his stool.  
For a long while they sat in silence, the soft murmurs from around other beds the only sound.

Bofur watched the light play on Nori’s hair, smooth strands slipping over and under each other like silk or molten metal.  
After a sigh Nori caught Bofur’s eyes and smiled the softest smile yet.  
Shrugged faintly and sighed again.

"You’re right.“  
Bofur chuckled and stretched his legs under Nori’s bed. "You’ll get used to it, starling.“  
"Are you going to call me that now?“  
"Been wanting to for ages.“  
"Well, I’m not about to stop you.“


End file.
